Music is powerful. Music is emotional. Music can make or break your customer’s experience.
According to a 2019 interview with Matt Alexander, CEO of Neighborhood Goods, “83% of American shoppers say they like in-store music…” Which means that customers notice the music in your business AND they have an opinion on it.
Some brands let employees create playlists, some brands such as Walmart have their own radio stations, and other brands use 3rd party apps such as SoundMachine to take care of their music needs.
There are many aspects of selecting the right music for your business including mood, genre, tone and more, but one of the most important and widely studied is the tempo. With SoundMachine’s integrated scheduling system, it’s never been easier to play the right music at the right time at the perfect tempo.
What do we mean by tempo? Tempo is simply how fast or slow the music is.
The music played in your business should keep two distinct audiences in mind.
1) Your Customers
2) Your Employees
The Customer
It’s obvious that music should be selected for your customer, and depending on how busy you are, there are some tricks for influencing the time that customers spend in your business.
Fast music creates a quick and exciting atmosphere that stimulates patrons. This motivates customers to make quicker decisions, spend less time in the store, and buy fewer things. Playing fast-tempo music is excellent during busy hours because it encourages customers to do their shopping quickly and get out, allowing the store to efficiently accommodate more people. According to a study by the Association for Consumer Research, “fast-tempo music that is more arousing or enervating influences people to spend less time on shopping.”
Slower-tempo music creates a calming atmosphere that relaxes patrons. In environments like this, patrons are more likely to stay longer, make more thoughtful decisions, and spend more money. It is perfect for times when you don’t have many customers. If the store isn’t busy and you have the time to accommodate these customers, it’s beneficial for them to stay longer, spend more time making purchasing decisions, and ultimately spend more money. Also, according to a study by the Association for Consumer Research, “slow-tempo “leisurely” music leads to a significant increase in sales.” Additionally, keeping customers longer during slow hours ensures that your business is never empty and makes it look busier, therefore becoming more attractive to potential new clients.
The Employee
Perhaps equally important, but somewhat overlooked, is the employee experience.
According to an article by WebFX, “90% of workers perform better when listening to music…”
and according to an article by PRS Music, “81% of people work more accurately when listening to music.”
AND according to NorthStar Meetings group, “77% of small- and medium-sized business owners believe that playing music increases employee morale.”
The numbers are in and music has a massively positive effect on employees.
Choosing the right tempo is also important for employees. A positive, “upbeat” tempo, tends to motivate employees to work faster and more efficiently. It also is shown to increase team morale substantially. Employees are more primed to work through busy periods and get customers in and out faster.
A more leisurely, slow-tempo work environment can cause employees to work somewhat slower, but more thoroughly. Studies have shown that employees engage in longer conversations with customers and create more relationships with your patrons.
What you DON’T want to do is choose a tempo that drives your employees crazy. Inappropriately slow or fast music is prone to irritate employees more than motivate them. Music that is slow or fast at inappropriate times of the day will also negatively affect employees and customers. That’s why scheduling appropriate tempos for your business throughout the day is important.
SoundMachine’s Scheduling System
SoundMachine understands that businesses need the ability to control what type and tempo of music plays at specific hours, and that’s why an intuitive scheduling system is included with their subscriptions. The process is simple and easy.
– Step 1: Choose your stations and create your mixes. For this step, you’ll want to focus on your business’s brand. Do you want pop? Jazz? Acoustic? Decide on your genre and then pick stations within that genre.
– Step 2: Go to the “saved stations” tab. Your selected stations will appear on this page, and beside each station is a scale from “mellow” to “upbeat.” This controls the tempo of music that will be played on this station. Slide it to mellow, and the music will be slow; slide it to upbeat, and the music will be fast; leave it in the middle, and it will play both fast and slow music.
– Step 3: Click on the “schedules” page. Here, you will be able to create and save your own schedules. You can create multiple schedules that can be used for different times of the year or for different locations. For example, you may have a “Christmas season” schedule or a “Central Store” schedule, each having their own programs optimized to their specific needs.
Step 4: Make the schedule. For each day of the week, you can plan stations and mixes to play in one hour increments. Using this feature, you can schedule fast-paced music to play during busy evening hours and slow music to play during the slower morning hours.
Music goes hand in hand with the experience of your customers, the productivity of your employees, and with features like scheduling, SoundMachine is designed to help you create the best atmosphere for your business.
To sign up for a free trial and try our scheduling system, click HERE
